Long-Vacant Hartford Building Near Planned Ballpark Has Buyer, Official Says

The bunker-like building at 150 Windsor St. just north of downtown Hartford has remained vacant since Bank of America moved out six years ago.

But the 193,000-square-foot structure is now under contract, providing evidence, city officials say, that the recent plan for a new ballpark just to the west is spurring investor and developer interest in the now-barren area known as Downtown North.

"It's a building that's been sitting empty, no one knows what to do with it, but someone, as a result of the ballpark announcement, believes this is the time to take a risk on it," Hartford's director of development Thomas E. Deller said.

Jay Morris, the broker with O,R&L Commercial who has the listing, declined to identify the buyer or the purchase price. But Morris said the purchase should close by the end of the year.

Morris said he did not know the buyer's specific plans for the four-story building, constructed in 1971 for a long line of bank data processing operations.

The building is owned by Summit Place LLC, according to city records, whose managing member is Irving Bork of Ellington.

The building was one of the 13 sites proposed for the University of Connecticut's downtown Hartford campus. At that time, another broker from O,R&L said the building "would be taken right down to the steel" if UConn chose it. (UConn ultimately selected the former Hartford Times building near Front Street.)

The Windsor Street property has enough space to park 300 cars on the site, with two levels of underground parking. The building has large, 40,000-square-foot floor sizes and room, if needed, for an addition. The building occupies an entire city block between Trumbull and Pleasant streets and has a back-up generator.

Plans for the ballpark must still be approved by the city council. The city hopes the Downtown North area will form a connection between downtown and the city's North End. In the 1960s, the construction of I-84 split off the area from the rest of downtown.